Staff Report
• Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Robert Shelton joined the Austin Seminary faculty in 1971 and was named the Jean Brown Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics in 1982. He served as academic dean for fifteen years and as president for six years until his retirement in 2002. Shelton’s presidential leadership was critical in steering the Seminary through its Centennial Celebration, in implementing a culture of institutional planning, and in guiding the Seminary’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign. He delivered the 2007 commencement address to a class in which his wife, the Reverend Frances Tilton Shelton (MDiv’93), received the Doctor of Ministry degree.
“Across Bob Shelton’s long tenure at Austin Seminary, he was a steward of the Seminary’s interests, in ways both heralded and unheralded, at many critical junctures,” said Austin Seminary President Theodore J. Wardlaw. “During his years at the Seminary, he had a huge formative impact upon many grateful students and colleagues.”
Ordained in the Cumberland Presbyterian tradition, Shelton came to Austin Seminary after teaching for three years at Memphis Theological Seminary and serving as pastor to Park Avenue Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee. From 1963 to 1969 he served as pastor of First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Tennessee, and prior to that he served other churches in New Jersey and Tennessee.
He was president of the Council of Southwestern Theological Schools, treasurer of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, and served on numerous committees and boards of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He served the church abroad, traveling to Germany, Asia, and Latin America to conduct and attend various seminars and retreats; in 1970 he was a delegate to the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1993, during the only sabbatical year he ever took while serving on the Austin Seminary faculty, Shelton was elected and served as moderator of the 163rd General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Shelton earned a BA from Maryville College, a BD from Memphis Theological Seminary, and a ThM and a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. He authored two books, A Changing Universe, An Unchanging God and The Use of Things and wrote numerous articles on preaching and worship. He led workshops, seminars, and preaching missions in churches, presbyteries, and ecumenical groups. Upon his retirement from Austin Seminary, the Board of Trustees named the Seminary chapel—to which he was especially devoted—in his honor. Following retirement, Shelton served in interim pastorates for First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport, First Presbyterian Church, San Antonio, and First Presbyterian Church and Lake Highland Presbyterian Church, both in the Dallas area.
Shelton is survived by his wife, Fran, along with their children, Tammy, Jim, Omi, and Sarah, and five grandchildren.
A service of Witness to the Resurrection will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 7, at First Presbyterian Church, Dallas; the Reverend Dr. R. Kenneth Peters (MDiv’83) and the Reverenced Rebecca Chancellor-Sicks (MDiv’08) will officiate.
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